Released last Thursday, Trump’s proposed budget eliminates all funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and cuts budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency by roughly 20 percent and 31 percent respectively. Many professors and researchers rely on the NEA, NEH, EPA and NIH for research and sabbatical funding.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith pictured in 2013.

“The overall picture painted by the budget represents a significant retreat from the longstanding partnership between the federal government and research universities that has enhanced the U.S. economy, improved public health, and helped alleviate suffering,” University spokesperson David J. Cameron wrote in an emailed statement.

English Department chair James Simpson said English professors will be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the proposed budget.

“Because [NEA and NEH] funding is such a tiny fraction of the overall U.S. budget, it is hard not to see this action as a deliberate attempt to silence and eradicate key academic and artistic voices from American civic life, undermining the primacy of the arts, culture, and education within our democracy,” History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies Professor Suzanne P. Blier wrote in an emailed statement.

With the University’s research agenda under threat, top Harvard administrators haven’t been standing by. Since Trump’s election, University President Drew G. Faust has been ramping up her efforts in the political arena, meeting with members of Congress to rally support for University priorities including federal research funding.

“We are heartened by the bipartisan expressions of support from Capitol Hill for many of the programs that are slated for cuts or elimination by the Administration’s plan, and we look forward to working with members of both parties as the budget process unfolds,” Cameron wrote.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith—who is also a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences—said in an interview earlier this month that the University was inviting lawmakers to tour Harvard’s campus in an effort to bolster support for federal funding.

“The funding that comes in for sciences is not on the edge of making a difference here, it is foundational to the leadership of this country in the area of science and technology and we want to make sure that those who are working on budgetary issues at the national and even local levels understand that,” Smith said.